These comments on our earlier post (John Dewey Principal Kathleen Elvin Discontinues Iraq War Vet and Mother) provides some more detail on the reasons behind the discontinued Iraq war vet and mom. Are Elvin and Creveling the local version of ISIS, using this teacher as a hostage in retaliation for actions taken by the union - beheading the teacher, economically, by taking her job.
The actions of Principal Elvin, along with Emily Crevling, the Assistant Principal of the English Department in John Dewey High School, regarding the termination of a untenured teacher, who was teaching a mere 4 months, should be viewed as nothing less than malfeasance. The teacher was hard-working, followed school policies, and the students attended her class because she established a rapport with them. Her only misstep was voicing a difference of opinion and questioned Ms. Crevling on a particular matter. I suppose this teacher would have needed more than 4 months to realize that in John Dewey High School one never questions Kathleen Elvin or her puppet assistant principals. This teacher, had she been given the opportunity to continue to teach in John Dewey, would have quickly learned that Principal Elvin prides herself on running a tight ship. So tight, that staff is not allowed to disagree with her or else she will find a way to retaliate. So tight, that she has managed to bring on [the blog post] John Dewey Principal Kathleen Elvin Discontinues Iraq War Vet and Mother
This is just the latest disgusting act of this power-mad, vengeful, menacing, and roundly-hated "Closer" Principal, who I have sent out diatribes about many times, to no avail. Elvin has not only gone after teachers who she takes a dislike to, like this one, for no explicable reason, but has decimated entire Dept's. since her arrival 3 years ago: there are at least 5 tenured teachers who are internally " rubber-roomed" through 30-20a terminations, and many others, including myself, who were forced out, through retirement as in my case, or by transferring to a less dangerous school administration. Now, I heard that she changed the locks on all the teacher' s lounges, just for sheer spite, and staff are left to eat/ get down-time in their own classrms (not very private!), or their cars!!! She has used sycophantic and spineless and heartless and careerist dept supervisors like Creveling, as well as her emasculated APO Messenger, who was an ATR up til last school year, to terrorize and destroy those on her Blacklist ( which includes other supervisors,paras, aides, as well as teachers ), and she has ruined a great school with paranoia, divisiveness, and a mania to " know everything"....a Stalinesque horror show. She must be curbed, and exposed for the true crimes she goes on committing against hardworking staff , who are virtual prisoners.
19 comments:
I am going to contact the Mayor's Office of Veterans' Affairs. As a veteran myself, it angers me to learn that an individual that served their country with distinction, has been treated in this manner. Shame!!!
To Carmen Farina and Michele Obama,
The Air Force Veteran spoken about on this blog is a young gifted Hispanic woman who is talented in many ways. She came to the school with life experiences which many of us don't have. She was a very talented teacher, had a firm grip on the students, communicated well,
and was willing to give her all to the students in her classes. Please help us help her to get her job back here at Dewey. We all could tell that she would be one of the new teachers who would grow with the school and contribute so much to it in years to come. Her chance to do this has been thwarted by administrators who have no regard for Veterans or for anyone who is creative and believes in themselves. The administrators mentioned above, Elvin and Creveling,came from Williamsburg Prep. They are a particularly self obsessed group of people, controlling to the nth degree and have absolutely no regard for anyone but their polished selves. And for your information Mrs. Farina, they are criminals who brought the school graduation rate to what it is by cheating and threatening teachers who didn't pass almost everyone. Aris tells the tale. Creveling would be lost without the Elvin strong arm. The Veteran ran into trouble by questioning Creveling about something, nothing really huge, but when you establish rapport with a class and get to know the students, when you are a good teacher and plans evolve as to how best to reach students, you become part of them and any nurturing of them that you hope will increase their success academically is something you don't lose sight of. When you are told by someone like Creveling, who doesn't teach any classes, who never establishes long term relationships with any students, that you must do everything she says, like clockwork, you will run into trouble because what was in your mind, that beautiful plan for each class, that hope that what you were doing would enlighten them, pull some of them out of themselves, change them, teach them to love life, is buried under the rules of obedience which are required when dealing with the fragile Creveling. Make no mistake, Elvin and Creveling are ego maniacs, or as some have said, sociopaths. They always present themselves as omniscient and absolutely will not hear about reality. Why should they when they can take the actual school stats and juice them up to make it look like they are successful? Shame on all the AP's at John Dewey HS who didn't step up to the plate to defend the Veteran. She served her country and Veterans are venerated by the present White House administration. Did you ever examine the courage it takes to go to Iraq? Not you Creveling,, not you Elvin. You're all too good for that kind of service. You would rather wake up every day and think of ways to screw teachers. Look how many have tried to get away from you, good teachers, great teachers. You are first class losers, cheaters, self obsessed fools who really need to take a good hard look at what you contribute to the world. We need people at Dewey whose feet are on the ground and who will support teachers. This isn't you. if anyone is reading this, it is our hope that they will step up to the plate, forward this to Michele Obama, forward this to Mrs. Farina. We need a change at Dewey. We need for someone to help the Hispanic Veteran who is now on the unemployment line because she had a plan and a dream for students and asked why she couldn't see it come to life.
There has to be a Veteran's organization that will come to bat for this person. Has to be! Many teachers will testify without anonymity on her behalf. Furthermore, someone stated an entirely plausible scenario on the main blog...Elvin only terminated her because she has brought rubber room termination charges against senior staffers and wanted to be able to say "look I got a young one , too!" This is a very dangerous place for the career of any teacher, because the AP's ( stands for Advanced Pusillanimity ) are in frightened lockstep and there is very little connection to reality other than glorifying and perhaps falsifying statistics..
The Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of American might be interested. Maybe some Dewey teachers can contact them as a group. Their URL is IAVA.org.
I don’t know Creveling personally, but if her firing a veteran is a legitimate reason for criticism, I, like tens of millions of other Americans, am also guilty for voting Bush 41, a decorated WWII hero, out of his job. I have nothing but the utmost respect for Bush 41 or any veteran for his personal sacrifice and impeccable character, but I fail to see the logic that any veteran, or for that matter, any mother, must be guaranteed a job for life, regardless of her current job performance. I am sure the fired teacher was a great competent soldier a wonderful mother, but not every good soldier is necessary a good teacher, and her veteran and maternal status should have absolutely no bearing on whether she should be terminated or not, or otherwise, following the same logic, we are all fathers and mothers and all of us should be guaranteed a job for life too. On the contrary I can imagine what a gut wrenching decision it had to be for Ms. Creveling. I was in a managerial position before, but I soon realized I lacked the steely resolve to put my personal feeling aside when I had to fire my under-performing friends and colleagues, so I sheepishly resigned and sought refuge in the education field. Creveling, an administrator, was just doing the job she was paid to do. Imagine the outrage from the parents if Creveling proclaimed instead she would never fire a teacher as long as he or she is a veteran or a parent? What was the prime reason of old Dewey’s fall from grace? A weak principal who could not bring himself up to discipline his staff. And writing to Michelle Obama to complain about a veteran being fired? What a wonderful idea. Have you forgotten millions of us chose her husband over John McCain, a Vietnam vet and a POW, for the job in White House Moreover, Obama himself has yet to create jobs for tens of thousands of our unemployed vets; he can easily put all of them into our nation’s schools, but he knows that the function of a school is to educate but not to create jobs for our vets. Like Obama, Creveling just wants the most qualified, the most competent teachers for our students, and what is so wrong about that? A veteran deserves our highest respect, but it doesn’t entitle him or her a job for life.
One possible solution to negative personnel actions taken by DOE supervisors is an appeal filed with the Commissioner of Education pursuant to Education Law §310.
www.counsel.nysed.gov/appeals
www.counsel.nysed.gov/Decisions/home.html
If the Commissioner of Education denies the appeal, his decision can be litigated in the NYS Supreme Court in Albany County pursuant to Article 78 of the CPLR (Civil Practice Law and Rules).
http://codes.lp.findlaw.com/nycode/CVP/78
If the Commissioner of Education grants the appeal, there is always the possibility that DOE will file such a litigation pursuant to Article 78.
The NYC Law Department, also known as the Corporation Counsel's Office, represents the DOE on Commissioner's appeals and Article 78 proceedings.
Here is a link to their staff directory:
www.nyc.gov/html/law/html/contact/telephone-email-directory.shtml
In response to the above post. It appears to be written by someone who is making a veiled attempt at damage control, albeit too late. The cat is out of the bag, so to speak, the JDHS staff is well aware of the situation that has occurred. Now, the administration is fearful it will go even further, to the Chancellor, perhaps. I find it interesting the above writer begins the post with claiming they do not know Ms. Creveling personally, yet ends the post with, "our students". Oops, a small slip, Principal Elvin. I doubt anyone would suggest a teacher should keep their job simply because they are a parent or veteran. It's insulting to even suggest that. You are using this defense as a smoke screen for the real issue at hand, which is, the firing of a teacher after only 4 months of teaching. This was not a gut-wrenching decision for Emily Creveling because it was not her decision, it was yours, Principal Elvin. Even in the corporate world workers are given more than 4 months to prove themselves. Once again, your words and your actions, Ms. Elvin, are disconnected. You have said many times during faculty conferences how you believe teaching is one of the most difficult professions, and yet, you give a budding new teacher a mere 4 months to get it right? It is so obvious that you and Ms. Creveling are concerned that you will eventually have to justify why you fired a teacher, for no good cause, after only 4 months. That is what you will have to explain, not why you fired a mother and a war vet. And if many, many people get their way, you will be justifying your malfeasant actions to the Chancellor.
The above information is very helpful, thank you for taking the time to provide it.
"not every good soldier is necessary a good teacher"? What does that mean?? No one cares how you voted. You miss the point entirely. If Creveling were doing her job, she would be teaching a class. She would be accepting challenges from teachers and helping them grow, encouraging them to make the most of their talents while following elements of Danielson so that they may be rated fairly and effectively. The reason the teacher who is a veteran and a mother was terminated was because she wasn't obedient and stood up to Creveling the same way other excellent teachers before her who were not veterans and mothers have done and subsequently received ineffective ratings. There is a problem at Dewey. You need a seeing eye dog if you're missing what is going on. The fact that many have spoken about the terminated teacher and mentioned her Veteran status has more to do with Creveling, a first class coward and self important individual, not being able to deal with reality. She wants to snuff out any behavior that doesn't resemble what is written on the "rules for teachers" clipboard she carries in her swelled head. Creveling does nothing for the school except prance around like an authority on the classroom expecting teachers to lose who they are as people and follow her dictates. This accomplishes nothing. For some reason, Dewey has been invaded by blind self-serving missionary types who think they can change the world by inducing fear in teachers, shaming them also. It is a toxic atmosphere. There are some teachers who are lauded and applauded at meetings, they've played the game well to stay alive in this morass of tyranny and nothingness. When will Farina understand what it's like at Dewey?
And when will she know that needy students are being overlooked by administrators who are afraid to get their feet wet by dealing with these children personally? . It is a school in which administrators who are told to keep a good distance from teachers so as to maintain their "control" of them and keep them guessing. It gives them the illusion of superiority, all part of the plan. Farina has written many things indicating that this is not what she wants. It would be great if one administrator who is still in the building spoke up and challenged Elvin at some point. We all know they can't be in favor of the constant program changes, the constant room changes, the dissolution of departments, the pressure to rate teachers poorly, the pressure to demand more from a teacher's time, the pressure to maintain passing rates. One has also to wonder what King Elvin and her Court are going to do without the chance to get an "A", a letter grade they cheated their way to at Williamsburg Prep by forcing teachers to comply with their demands just as they do so at Dewey, regardless of whether or not a teacher served their country. In Elvin's court, it's how you make an administrator feel about themselves that is the key. "You" are irrevelant.
What a simpering and transparent post in defense of Creveling!!!! What's next bringing termination charges against a new teacher for violating the Sharpie ban??? The war veteran was terminated to counter charges of ageism that are being considered by the nine count em nine Ineffective senior teachers. This is how Elvin thinks. Why the sudden influx of black teachers when there were none hired in her first two years? Could it be that the new superintendent is black?? Ah students...now you see. Everything is done for a reason and that reason is the glorification and or protection of Kathleen Elvin. It's unraveling now. Gravity is an irresistible force.
I wrote the post, and I am a Dewey teacher but not Elvin. I dont think you know anything about the corporate world; in management consulting and investing bank, the industrial practice for new associates/analysts is up or out in two years, but for the new traders/sales, all it takes is one bad quarterly review, and they are gone. Even better, Bloomberg Inc., the firm founded by our ex-mayor, uses no employment contract; anyone can be shown the door after a day of employment. As for the new tech startups, if a new engineer/programmer/data analyst is incompetent, he will be fired before he has time to decorate his computer monitor. BTW, don't forget Jack Welsh, the former GE CEO whose practice was to fire at least 10% of all employees every year. And they are all exemplary models all firms in other industries try to imitate to a certain degree. BTW, just a friendly reminder, not every Ivy grad can land a job in one of those firms.
The Thursday post defending Creveling sounds like Chan again. Worshipping at the altar of the Jack Welch?? Jeez Louise!!!!
Last time I checked, teachers were not working in a "corporate world"......we are educators and we are always trying to hone our craft, be inventive, be creative and do whatever works to teach children. To lump us in the same category as corporate workers is an insult.
Happy Veterans Day
Now this deadly gang of so-called administrators have surely- through the terrible stress they put all targeted teachers through- contributed to the premature death of Ms. Karras, a wonderful Foreign Language Teacher, who passed away over the weekend. Mrs Elvin, who was behind the non-stop attack on this teacher all last year and this year, was suddenly eulogizing her over the loudspeaker, and making sure everyone knew she was so deeply, deeply saddened by the loss of Foula Karras! What a miserable and transparent hypocrite- she should be known as "The Widow/Widower Maker"!
Any new English teacher who is looking for a job should not come to Dewey. Creveling and Elvin will threaten your job security if you don't pass everyone. Everything with them is personal. They use words like "selfish" to describe some teachers. They're sick.
Mrs.Karras won national " Teacher of the Year" on 2006, according to her daughter.
Kathleen Elvin has been fired! Teachers at John Dewey High School made it happen! She will never harass teachers within the walls of our school again! What she has done to the veteran/single mother/wonderful teacher who is the subject of this blog has helped inspire us.
Oh! By the way, Emily Creveling must have known that something was about to happen because she left the NYC system of her own accord and is now working somewhere in New Jersey.
The New York Times piece from last June that defended Elvin was an attack on the great teachers of a John Dewey High School! And Emily Creveling spoke for Elvin knowing the truth-
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